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2 CENTRAL CANTERBURY NEWS, JANUARY 28, 2015 NEWS PO Box 114, Rangiora 7440 Editorial inquiries Ph: 027 573 9556 General inquiries Ph: (03) 313 6183 REPORTER Crash rate rising steadily Figures well up on last January By EMILY SPINK and SAM SHERWOOD Driver fatigue and distraction are to blame for an increasing number of accidents in Selwyn, police say. Fire Service crews have been called out to at least a dozen crashes in Selwyn District already this year. Callouts have included two incidents each in Lincoln, Rolleston, Leeston, Dunsandel and Darfield. Sheffield and Kirwee stations have responded to one crash each. Rolleston chief fire officer Nigel Sam Sherwood P: 03 943 2826 | 027 573 9556 sam.sherwood@fairfaxmedia.co.nz EDITOR Geoff Mein P: 03 943 2598 | 027 622 5012 geoff.mein@fairfaxmedia.co.nz MANAGER Lydia von Ronge P: 03 311 8711 | 027 285 2779 lydia.vonronge@press.co.nz ADVERTISING CONSULTANT Paul MacDonald P: 311 8704 027 487 3024 paul.macdonald@fairfaxmedia.co.nz CLASSIFIEDS goclassifi eds@ccnews.co.nz P: 377 8778 Lilley says the figures are not significant per station, but when combined, the number for the Selwyn District is ‘‘far too many’’. For the same period last year, there were only four crashes across the entire district. Two were in the Rolleston area and the other two in Arthur’s Pass. Police are investigating whether a driver drifted into the path of oncoming traffic or was attempting to overtake before allegedly causing a crash on State Highway 1 near Templeton about 11.20am on Monday. Two people were trapped in their vehicles for more than 20 minutes after the crash, involving a car, truck and van. Four people were injured, one seriously and two moderately. The fourth was not taken to hospital. Christchurch West police community service manager Senior Sergeant Peter Stills says distraction and fatigue are themajor influencers of crashes in the district. Wrecked: The aftermath of a crash near Templeton on Monday morning. ‘‘We have noticed an increase. We have certainly had a worse January than we did last year.’’ There were two fatal crashes this year, when there had not been any at the same time last year. ‘‘Sometimes it’s just luck of the draw, but we are certainly noticing an upsurge in complaints about driving incidents, particularly where Picture: STACY SQUIRES people are crossing the centre line or overtaking in dangerous places, and risky behaviour,’’ he says. ‘‘When someone is crossing the centre line when they’re not far out of Christchurch and they’re heading a fair distance, what’s their driving going to be like an hour or two further south? ‘‘It’s a real concern.’’ Stills says people also do not know what ‘‘stop’’ means. Selwyn police are targeting people failing to stop at stop signs. On Thursday, Stills pulled over a woman who had failed to stop at an intersection, and her excuse was ‘‘I nearly stopped and I wasn’t going very fast’’. ‘‘Stop means stop,’’ Stills says. Evacuation possible as bushfire grows By MYLES HUME ADVERTISING WRITER Jeff Lilly P: 027 622 5011 jeff.lilly@press.co.nz The Central Canterbury News is delivered to over 16,267 homes every Wednesday. Published by The Press, a division of Fairfax Media NZ An evacuation plan was put in place for Castle Hill residents after a fire opposite the Craigieburn cutting near Flock Hill station trebled in size on Monday night. The blaze began about 2.30pm on Monday. Ten aircraft, including six helicopters and four fixed wing ‘‘water bombers’’, resumed the firefighting effort yesterday morning, supported on the ground by crews from across the South Island. Department of Conservation (DOC) technical fire support officer Craig Alexander said the fire had swelled from 100 hectares to almost 300 hectares overnight. Flames, reaching heights of 20 metres, tore through vegetation including manuka, wilding pine and beech forest. Volatile winds were making the fire difficult to contain, and conditions were too dangerous for ground crews to fight directly. ‘‘It’s been going from easterly to westerly within minutes – you’ve got the fire travelling in one direction and then the other. It’s like chasing a bull. ‘‘We have got an evacuation plan in place for Castle Hill Village, with the support of police and the Selwyn District Council,’’ Alexander said. Firefighters did not expect the fire to be under control before last evening and warned it could take another two to three days to fully extinguish. ‘‘Although not a large fire requiring dozens of crew, the conditions – with steep terrain, the variable winds causing spot fires, high temperatures, low humidity and dry dense fuel – mean this is going to take a huge effort to bring under control and extinguish,’’ Alexander said. Nearby water sources are scarce, so monsoon buckets were being filled at Lake Pearson. Alexander said they were considering applying a fire retardant line up to 1500 metres long to control the fire, which would be an expensive operation. State Highway 73 was reduced to one lane, with traffic being escorted through the area. Castle Hill Community Associ- ation chairman John Reid said the community was ready if the fire reached the village. There are 125 houses and about 20 permanent residents, with several visitors staying during weekends. ‘‘We have an emergency response team . . . I’m just going around at the moment checking who is in the village, but I don’t think there are too many.’’ He said he had not seen a fire this size in the area before, but residents were confident it would not reach their settlement. Conor Boyd, who owns the Doug Log House in Castle Hill, did not believe the fire would reach the village. However, he would be advising occupants of his property about the plan. He said this time of year is popular with mountainbikers and the fire may affect that. Duck hitting power line blamed for fire By EMILY SPINK A flying duck is suspected to be the culprit in a fire near West Melton one night last week. Fire crews from West Melton, Rolleston and Harewood were called to the blaze, after a broken power line hit the ground and started a fire along a water race. West Melton rural chief fire officer John Doherty said lines company Orion found a dead duck near the broken line. ‘‘It appears that was the cause. Can’t say too muchmore, as the duck wasn’t talking.’’ In his 14-year career with the Fire Service, Doherty had never attended an incident sparked by a duck. ‘‘I’m not sure how easy those lines are to break – like whether the duck was overweight or something?’’ The fire crews dealt with the main fire, but had to wait until Orion attended and confirmed the line was dead before they could safely approach the area around the downed wire. ‘‘There were actually two dead ducks. One was closer to the road, but that would have been a road kill.’’ Despite heat affecting surrounding shrubs, crews were able to get the fire under control ‘‘fairly quickly’’. ‘‘We couldn’t get into the immediate area, of course, because of the risk of electrocution. ‘‘The power travels through the ground – that’s why we tell people to stay in cars when wires come down over them.’’ The Harewood crew was able to ‘‘knock off’’ the fire from the east, at the intersection of West Coast Rd and Miners Rd, while a West Melton crew tackled it from the west. 6478566AA